Impact phenomena within the plasma vacuum deposition

Abstract

If the positive ions are placed in an intense electric field, they will be attracted and accelerated to the negatively charged piece. This phenomenon is currently used as part of an ion deposition process. One can consider that the deposition process is the result of the accelerated ions’ impact with the workpiece surface layer. In the specialty literature, the ion deposition process is included in the so-called larger category of the physical vapour deposition. This paper presents some considerations of the authors concerning the base phenomena and applied aspects of the ion deposition process. To improve some service properties (corrosion and wear resistance, friction coefficient etc.) of certain pieces or tools, thin layers of titanium nitride can be deposited on their surfaces. The titanium nitride deposition process can be regarded as a system; as input parameters, one may consider the type of the material to be deposited and of the substrate, the type of the gas existing or obtained in the vessel, the electrical parameters used to generate the ions and to accelerate them to the cathode, the pressure in the recipient etc. The paper includes some hypotheses developed by the authors regarding the phenomena occurring during the plasma deposition process of titanium nitride. There are also some considerations concerning the changing of the surface roughness as consequence of the plasma deposition process.